President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has said that there is no reason for anyone to go hungry in Nigeria.

Adesina said this during the launch of the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs) in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

Development Diaries reports that SAPZ is a programme initiated by AfDB.

SDG Two: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

The new economic zones are designed to cluster agro-processing activities within areas of high agricultural advantage, bringing together agricultural producers, processors, aggregators, and distributors.

Data from the World Food Programme (WFP) shows that about 8.4 million people are food insecure in northeast Nigeria alone.

Also, the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies (IFRC) projected 19.5 million people to face hunger in Nigeria between June and August 2022.

In his remarks at the event, Adesina said the hunger crisis in Nigeria cannot be justified given the country’s diverse agroecology and arable land.

Nigeria has the land, with 34 million hectares of arable land with rich and diverse agroecology’, the Nigerian said.

‘It has the water. It has the labour. It has great sunshine. Nigeria must achieve zero hunger. There is no reason for anyone to go hungry in Nigeria’.

He added that the creation of SAPZs will boost food production, reduce food loss, and improve food and agricultural value chains.

For his part, President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by Vice President Yemi Osibajo, said the actualisation of the objectives of SAPZs will help address food insecurity, create agro-industrial jobs and radically improve export earnings from agriculture.

Source: AfDB

Photo source: Paul Kagame